The LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH is LEICA's best ultrawide lens ever made at any price. It is ultrasharp at every aperture, has negligible distortion, is small, light and takes common 46mm filters, and for the first time since 1958's SUPER-ANGULON 21mm f/4, has a proper 9-bladed diaphragm for superior 18-pointed sunstars!

This LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH is better than today's $6,500 LEICA SUMMILUX-M 21mm f/1.4 ASPH because this f/3.4 lens is sharper, less distorted, much smaller, lighter and takes normal filters. Better optics, better handling and less than half the price makes this new f/3.4 lens the choice of the discerning and practical photographer.

This LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH is better than the previous $4,500 LEICA ELMARIT-M 21mm f/2.8 ASPH (1997-2011) because, while they have the same optical performance, this new lens has superior ergonomics, takes more common filters, is smaller, lighter and most importantly because this new lens has a 9-bladed diaphragm for superior 18-pointed sunstars.

Other than speed, the only lens that can outperform this lens in any way is 1958's SUPER-ANGULON 21mm f/4 because it takes standard 39mm filters and has less distortion due to its symmetrical design. The gotcha is that its symmetrical design prevents the use of through-the-lens meters or use on the LEICA M9 and LEICA M9-P, and the 1958 len's ergonomics aren't as good as this new LEICA 21mm f/3.4.

If you want the best LEICA ultrawide ever made, this LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH is it.

The LEITZ SUPER-ANGULON 21mm f/4 was made for LEICA by Schneider. It's a great lens and one of my favorites because of its 9-bladed diaphragm, tiny size and standard 39mm filter, but sadly newer cameras cannot meter with this great lens. The sensors of the LEICA M9 and LEICA M9-P are not compatible with it either, unless you use some odd software to compensate for edge effects.

It uses a bizarre 48mm filter size and has a hideous 4-bladed diaphragm.

It also is a symmetrical design not usually compatible with TTL metering or with the LEICA M9 and LEICA M9-P, so I've never bothered with it.

This old f/3.4 is therefore the least desirable of all LEICA 21mm lenses, so it's amusing that LEICA chose to pimp it up when talking about this new 21mm f/3.4 ASPH. Even if this old f/3.4 was interesting, it wasn't even made by LEICA.

The LEICA ELMARIT-M 21mm f/2.8 ASPH is LEICA's first aspherical 21mm lens and has magnificent performance, except for its moronic 8-bladed diaphragm that gives nasty 8-pointed sunstars that scream "shot on Canon!"

It takes 55mm filters, again a weird size for LEICA.

2011-

This LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH is LEICA's best 21mm lens ever. It offers the superior 9-bladed diaphragm for the first time since 1963, as well as superior ergonomics and takes a reasonable 46mm filter.

The silver box seen here is shipped inside another plain cardboard outer box, also with a matching serial number. The outer box is for protection against germs and fingerprints to insure that your shiny silver box is not touched by anyone other than yourself when you get your lens. This makes five items with serial numbers: lens, bag, Prüfzertifikat, box and germ shroud.

Bokeh, the character of out of focus backgrounds, not simply how far out of focus they are, is unimportant with 21mm lenses because almost nothing is ever out of focus.

The only way to see anything out of focus is to have something very close to the lens, and then focus on it.

If you do this, bokeh is only fair in the center, and poor on the sides.

Here are crops from extremely enlarged prints of about 35 x 52" (90 x 135cm), or the equivalent of looking at LEICA M9 images, shot as DNG and converted in Apple Aperture 3, at 100% on-screen.

In these examples, a vertically polarized phase lattice was set up at 1 meter (3 feet) on which the SUPER-ELMAR-M ASPH was focused, while synthetic reference vegetation seen out of focus in the background was at 15 meters (50 feet).

Center Bokeh

Left Edge Bokeh

Edge bokeh doesn't vary much at the larger apertures because mechanical vignetting hides much of the aperture regardless of the diaphragm setting.

On a LEICA M9 and LEICA M9-P, you will see what appears to be a cooler color balance if you don't use a 21mm lens profile. This is because the light from the back of this lens hits these cameras' sensors at a steep angle which causes the light to hit different CCD wells leading to a bluer rendition over most of the frame. When you use a 21mm lens profile, all this technical hocus-pocus goes away and the picture looks normal, but on a digital LEICA without a profile set, the overall image, especially sides, will look bluer.

The LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH has minimal distortion. If you see it, it bulges a little in the center and sucks-out again at the sides.

Its complex distortion doesn't correct completely with Photoshop's
lens distortion filter; some waviness remains after correction. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.

Flare and ghosts aren't a problem. The only way to see ghosts or flare is to have the disk of the sun in the image, and expose for a much darker foreground against which one slight blob opposite the sun just might be able to be seen.

Per my optical range tests, this f/3.4 lens as sharp at f/4 and smaller as the previous LEICA ELMARIT-M 21mm f/2.8 ASPH (1997-2011). This f/3.4 lens is sharper at f/3.4 than the f/2.8 lens is at f/2.8.

As I've been saying, this is LEICA's best 21mm lens ever. I had my own on order only an hour after I got this loaner in my hands.

This 21/3.4 is a lens for photographers. The LEICAMAN doesn't make photographs, so he prefers the big, ugly and expensive LEICA SUMMILUX-M 21mm f/1.4 ASPH instead as a toy, but don't you be fooled. The f/1.4 lens is only for LEICAMEN and for use only if you really need faster apertures for use in very low light. Because of the short focal length, even at f/1.4 there isn't much out-of-focus. If you need to isolate a subject, use a longer lens.

The 21mm f/3.4 isn't available just yet. To get ours, we need to order it and be patient. See also How to Get It.

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